Coming soon!

It's that time again...

The show this year is on Friday, April 20th at 7 p.m. and Saturday, April 21st at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. 

"Set in Damon Runyon's mythical New York City, GUYS AND DOLLS JR. introduces us to colorful characters who have become legends in the musical theatre canon: Sarah Brown, the up­right but uptight "mission doll,"; Sky Masterson, the slick, high-rolling gambler who woos her on a bet and ends up falling in love; Adelaide, a nightclub performer whose chronic flu is brought on by the fact she's been engaged to the same man for 14 years; and Nathan Detroit, her devoted fiancé, desperate as always to find a spot for is infamous floating dice game."


Wanna see it?  Let me know when and I'll set some tickets aside for you:)!

Good Reports and Lollipops

I took Molly to another follow up with her urologist this morning and he has both taken her off of medication and declared he doesn’t need to see her for another YEAR!  It was an exciting visit and Molly celebrated by using her drs. office prize lollipop as body paint before coming in for preschoolJ!  It took me 5 wipes to get all the sticky off...

This comes just 3 months after her orthopedist made the same declaration--he sees her again at Christmas.  (The lady who helped us with our taxes was amazed at how much medical we racked up last year--guess we won't have all those copays and prescriptions to deduct next time and I'm okay with that!)    Dr. Smith said she is still more susceptible to UTIs than the average kid for awhile but looks great anatomically and the reflux is now a non-issue!  Another plus is that since she can now pee in a potty (not potty trained mind you)  it won't take a catheter to get a sample if we suspect she does have a UTI...big up-side!!  So, I wanted to share the good news with you all who have so diligently prayed for her from day one (and before).  Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!

It's Cool in the Furnace

This is what I've been working on for awhile:

It's a wall of flames.  Though this is an in-progress pic, all squares in the grid are now full and we are DONE!  The squares at the top are all song titles in the musical It's Cool in the Furnace, a retelling of the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from Daniel.  The angels on the left side each have one of the 12 first through fourth grade classes on therm.  They're representative of the angel of the Lord that appeared in the furnace to watch over the boys.  For each song learned, a class earned a flame (you know, from the fiery furnace) to keep track of our progress throughout the quarter.  Well, this past Thursday evening it all came to fruition and my elementary kids put on their 8th musical production since I've been at Eastside.  It was a blast:

I don't usually post school stuff on here but Ryan got some pictures so I thought I'd share.  As I said, this year it was It's Cool in the Furnace, a musical written in 1973.  My sisters did it when they were little in the 70's or 80's and then I played the role of Daniel when our church in Connecticut put it on in the 90's.  I love biblical musicals like this that are timeless and tell the story well.  My kids, in 2012, loved it so much and some of their parents were in the same thing way back when...so fun:)

The parents costumed their own children based on some simple suggestions I sent home (using a pillowcase or dad's old shirt with the cuffs and collar chopped off) and everyone looked great!

Kazoos were necessary for Nebuchadnezzar's many fanfare entrances but they had to be easily accessible...so I fashioned a lanyard out of yarn for one and had my fabulous three 8th grade assistants replicate it 170 times over.

Here are the main characters in our story...from right to left, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach (played proudly by a girl), and Abednego.  When I chose this show for the year, I'd forgotten that there were only 2 speaking roles--Daniel (a narrator) and King Neb.  That posed a bit of a problem since the whole fourth grade is promised the task of executing the drama portion of our program.  I took the two and split it into enough roles for 31 fourth graders and all was well.

Our school's athletic director, Coach Jones, graciously accepted the role of Neb and did an excellent job scaring all the children and then being humbled by God.  He's pictured here with his sidekicks:

I made and hung some cardboard flames in the baptistry and, along with some fun lighting by my friend David, that became our furnace.  Here are the boys dancing in the "cool" furnace:

And here's where the angel of the Lord showed up:

The show ends with a goose-bump-inducing power ballad of "Let the People Praise".  I told my kids they'd be waving gold ribbon but instead had some white chiffon on hand.  I cut it into strips and realized the day before that it just looked like they were waving toilet paper in Jesus' name...not the regal praise I was looking for but it worked and maybe people didn't see what I did...maybe.

Some TP praise:

Now shifting focus entirely to Guys and Dolls which should be a blast as well...I'll be back to real life in about a month:)

Making room

When we first moved in I opted not to do much with Molly's room (ha, well if you saw my house you'd think I opted not to do much with anything [I'm not exaggerating], but ignoring M's room was actually on purpose).  We figured that she'd soon be moving out of her crib and we'd address things when baby-room turned big-girl-room.  Then when we found out we were having a baby we decided to wait until we found out what it was and then determine what kind of 2 kid set up we might have.  Well, now I'm itching to get to it and start giving some life to Molly's and Jack's builder-beige rooms!  You might say my intellectual nesting instinct has set in but alas, the energy part just isn't keeping up--what with my "real" job and all.  And because I'd have to blow the dust off my camera to get any real pictures I'm just going to find pics from ye olde intranet to illustrate my ideas.

First off, I've decided to take color inspiration for Jack's room from a childhood favorite (of mine), Caps for Sale.  You know it?

Now, computer monitor colors are tricky but what I love is the blue of the sky (it's the color of our playroom now), the pencil/mustard yellow color of the crops, the off-red color of the title/caps/shoes/crops (it reads orange on my screen right now but it's more red than orange in real life), the smoky blue color of the middle set of caps (it's darker in reality...like the color of the dining room at our old house), and the smattering of black and white throughout.

To be clear, I'm not going for a "caps for sale" theme (and NO monkey theme either), but I'm using the book for a jumping off point and will probably use some of the illustrations as artwork.  Another favorite of mine, Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing, happens to have the same colors going on and it's pictures make me laugh so those'll be included too:

This is Ryan's and my favorite...hilarious right?  A chicken in a wife-beater?!  (oh, and there's an egg stuck in its pants):

As for Molly's room, I'm using her lampshades (which I'm still in love with) to continue dictating colors in there:

Eventually her mattress and box spring will rest on the iron bed I used as a kid and MiMi and Pop have already gotten her this pretty bedspread:

I got some white ruffle curtains on clearance at Target:

and I'm going to add [read: have my mom add] pom-pom fringe to the layers to jazz 'em up.

So, there are a few of my plans because I know you care;).  Now onto the doing...after both of my shows are over!

Oh, and before I go, Jack is supposedly about a foot long and just over a pound by now.  He's an active little thing which makes me smile all the time.  And Molly's is ridiculously wonderful.  That'll be another post for another time.  I'll catch you up on some iPhone pics in the meantime.

Passing the time between arrival and preschool in the morning:

Tornado warning sleepover (after my rehearsal lock-in ended early):

Painting with potato stamps while I make dinner:

 A cutie in booties:

Having a snack while I'm in rehearsal:

Night.